All that jazz - and more

Jerry Fink, Las Vegas Sun

Tuesday, April 17, 2007 | 7:05 a.m.

What: City of Lights Jazz and R&B Festival

When: 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, 1 to 10 p.m. Saturday

Where: Hills Park, Hillspoint Road and Rampart Boulevard, Summerlin

Tickets: $50 to $140; 228-3780 and yourjazz.com

Friday lineup, George Duke, Dazz Band, Bar-Kays

Saturday lineup: Jazz Attack (Richard Elliot, Peter White, Rick Braun and Jonathan Butler), Hiroshima, Nick Colionne, Urban Jazz Coalition, Philippe Saisse Trio

When it comes to jazz, Las Vegas can be a desert - but this weekend jazz will reign over the valley.

The 15th annual City of Lights Jazz and R&B Festival, featuring such top artists as George Duke, Hiroshima and Jazz Attack with Richard Elliot, Peter White, Rick Braun and Jonathan Butler, comes to Hills Park in Summerlin on Friday and Saturday.

Among the performers at this year's fest will be the respected Urban Jazz Coalition.

Jazz Times magazine said of the group's latest release, "Down to Get Up": "Urban Jazz Coalition is more about the band's interaction and playing, although the melody is forever lingering and making itself known. They're a seasoned bunch of musicians."

JAZZIZ magazine described the coalition as "a blend of smooth jazz textures and fiery funk."

This is the group's first appearance at the City of Lights festival.

During a recent telephone call from his home base in Columbus, Ohio, Urban Jazz Coalition founder Phil Raney had high praise for City Lights creator Michael Schivo.

"He's almost like the Bill Graham of smooth jazz," Raney said. "He's been big for years in the music industry. So for somebody like that to give us a shot, we feel blessed and grateful."

Urban Jazz Coalition is composed of bassist Raney, drummer Jim Bridges, guitarist Joe Gothard, keyboardist Brandon Howard, percussionist Hector Maldonado, saxophonist Keith Newton and trumpeter Lee Savory.

While some say jazz doesn't hold the interest that it once did, Raney sees things in a different light.

"I don't think it's gone away," he said. "It's just, how do you define jazz now? You'd have a jazz purist tell you it's Count Basie, it's Duke Ellington.

"You have people like Miles Davis who came from that ilk, and when he started to experiment with electronics, the pure jazz folks were like, 'That's not jazz. Miles sold out. He's not doing jazz anymore.' But you know what, jazz is a little bit of all that - it's big band, it's trios, it's fusion."

Raney pointed out that jazz legends such as Chick Corea and Weather Report once were thought to be heretical.

"A lot of your jazz purists said, 'Ah, that's rock music. That's not jazz,' " he said. "Well, it's all jazz, but there are ongoing battles to define what jazz is.

"You have so many different elements. You've got the smooth jazz. You've got the straight ahead. You've got the R&B. You've got people mixing jazz and hip-hop and all that. I just think it has evolved into a whole bunch of different things.

"I don't think it really ever went away, but again it depends on what you want to call jazz."